It wasn't the Irish alone who bore the stigma of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States. Name the ethnic group, and suspicions, fears and slanders have been posed against them when Americans who were more settled in this country thought these immigrant groups posed a threat to the American way of life—or, more likely, the status quo that benefited the earlier arrivals.

Vice President Joe Biden stole the show at a Georgetown University program promoting peace in wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

Two aspects of U.S. religious life today, according to the report, have not changed: the increasing average age of women religious and their declining numbers. "Only 9 percent of religious sisters are younger than 60; more than two-thirds of women and men vowed religious are older than 65," the report said.

With the government of President Bashar Assad controlling perhaps one-quarter of Syria but two-thirds of the population, and Kurdish separatists controlling two northern slivers of the country, most of Syria's eastern half is controlled by Islamic State, with collections of so-called "moderate" rebels -- i.e., anyone not named Islamic State that wants Assad gone -- hunkered down in the rest. There is little incentive for Syrians to stay in their homeland.

"Producing or using pornography is gravely wrong. It is a mortal sin if it is committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent. Unintentional ignorance and factors that compromise the voluntary and free character of the act can diminish a person's moral culpability," says the approved version of "Create in Me a Clean Heart: A Pastoral Response to Pornography."

"No institution in the United States has done more in recent years than the Catholic Church to take proactive steps to protect children from the evil of sexual abuse," wrote Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington in a Nov. 2 letter emailed to Catholics in his archdiocese.

"We would never allow this to happen if this were any other physical illness," said Kennedy, who represented a congressional district in Rhode Island for 16 years before stepping down in 2011.

The Heritage event comes after a series of undercover videos released this summer showed physicians and others associated with Planned Parenthood describing the harvesting of fetal tissue and body parts during abortions at their clinics and discussing the sale of post-abortion fetal tissue.

The U.S. bishops will consider whether to approve a new introductory note and a limited revision of their quadrennial statement on political responsibility during their Nov. 16-19 fall general assembly in Baltimore.The statement, "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," is reissued

Asked what he might ask Pope Francis were he to be a guest on his new show, Colbert replied, "I would ask him about how love leads him to joy, or does love lead him to joy?"